Golden Slumbers
by Marcelisabeth Sinclaire
Summary: Once there was a way to get back homeward...this is the story of Ria, a young girl in Johto. A change from what I usually do... Rated T for violence and sad themes...
1. Prologue, Tell Me A Story

"Tell me a story, Grandma!" Joey cried. His Rattata squeaked in agreement.

"A story?" the old woman said in a creaky voice. "I'm old…my memory is going…"

"Oh, please, Grandma, please?" pleaded the young Trainer. "You can make the story up if you can't remember any real ones."

His grandmother smiled and patted his head. "Joey, it's late. Little Trainers need their rest."

Joey's Rattata squeaked loudly. "Rattata's right," Joey said firmly. "We can't sleep without a story!"

A sigh escaped the old woman's lips. "All right, then, honey," she said. "Here is a story for you.

"Once, there was a time when Team Rocket didn't just use their Pokémon to hurt other Pokémon…they went after their owners as well….."


	2. Chapter 1

Ria lived in Cianwood City with her parents. She was, her parents said, not old enough to be a Trainer; thus, she had no Pokémon of her own. However, they promised her that once she was old enough, they would take her into the nearby caverns and let her capture her first Pokémon. Ria loved to swim in the ocean and play with the Tentacool and Magikarp that lived there, and often she would pretend that they were her team of Pokémon.

Ria's life was peaceful. The occasional Trainer would visit the town to challenge Chuck, the gym leader, and Ria would watch them in wonder from a distance. Once, she approached the Trainer, which was something her parents told her never to do.

"Excuse me…sir?" she asked, in her most grown-up voice. "May I please see your Pokémon team?"

The Trainer stared at Ria for a few seconds before smiling. Without a word, he opened all six of his Poke Balls and let out his team.

Ria gazed in wonder at the Pokémon. They were kinds that she had only read about in her Pokémon guidebooks: Meganium, Dodrio, Furret, Rapidash, Weezing, and Slowpoke. She reached out a tentative hand to stroke the Rapidash's nose, but the Trainer snatched her wrist. Frowning, he shook his head and returned the Pokémon to their Poke Balls. Then, he released her wrist and went off to the Gym.

Ria felt a lump in her throat. Those beautiful Pokémon had been so close…why couldn't she have just touched one? She returned to her house, tremendously disappointed.

When asked by her mother about her sad face, Ria replied that she had stubbed her toe on a rock. No sense in telling her mother about the Trainer; Ria would most likely be reprimanded for bothering a Gym Challenger. She retreated to her room and gazed out the window at the ocean.

She couldn't remember when she'd fallen asleep, but suddenly Ria was awakened by shouting voices coming from downstairs. She recognized her mother's and father's voices, but two other voices were unfamiliar to her. Pulling on her bravest face, Ria tiptoed down the stairs. When she came to the first landing, she peered around the corner into the kitchen and froze.

"We k now he's hiding here!" a man in a black uniform was shouting at Ria's mother. The uniform had a red R printed on the front. A Golbat was fluttering menacingly behind the strange man. Its wings had knocked the framed photo of Ria's family off a table, and the glass lay in fragments on the floor.

"Yeah…our spies saw him talking to a brat that cam e into this house," a woman in an identical uniform snarled. The woman had a Persian pacing threateningly behind her.

Ria's mother shook her head. "No, no….we have no child….you have the wrong house…I don't know any Trainer…"

The man motioned to the Golbat. The Pokémon raised its wings high and then brought them down so fast, Ria saw only a purple blur.

Ria's father jumped in front of his wife to protect her and large gashes appeared in his chest. With a strangled cry, he slumped to the floor in a growing pool of red. Ria's mother screamed loudly, but Ria could not move to help her. She stood, paralyzed, as the woman nodded at her Persian.

"I think it's time you learned what happens if you mess with Team Rocket…" the evil woman purred. The Persian leapt, claws extended, on Ria's mother. It was only then that Ria unfroze long enough to duck around the corner again. She slumped down the wall before sitting on the floor, knees hugged to her chest, listening to her mother's screams as she was ripped apart by the Persian.

After a time, the screaming stopped. Ria heard the front door close, and peered around the corner again. The first thing she saw was her mother's head, lying next to her father's body.

Ria did not burst into tears. Instead, she ran up to her room. Grabbing a bag from her closet, she threw into it her Pokémon guidebook, some underwear, a bottle of water, and miscellaneous other things she snatched up at random. Then, she headed back downstairs again.

The kitchen was a scene from a horror movie. Ria contemplated burying her parents, the whole time consciously aware that she was not crying; but she decided that there was no way she could get their bodies out of the house. Not to mention that everyone would probably assume she'd committed the murder herself.

On an impulse, she picked up her dead mother's head. A quick look around the kitchen revealed the location of some waterproof bags. She put the head in one of them, vowing to bury it somewhere. Burying the head, she thought, would be enough to show that she truly loved her parents and was sad that they had died.

At this thought, the tears released themselves and she began to cry. Cradling the bag that held the head of her dead mother, Ria cried. Her tears mixed with the pools of blood on the floor.

After crying for what seemed like years, Ria left her house. She told herself that she would never return. She would not be a Trainer after all; just someone who wandered and wandered over all of Johto.

Joey sat bolt upright in bed, clutching his Rattata. "Grandma….is this story real?"

"You told me I could make up a story if I didn't remember a real one," his grandmother replied. It was not really an answer.

"But what happened then?" Joey demanded. "Is she going to wake up and it'll all be a dream?"

Joey's grandmother patted his head again. "Tomorrow, honey. You need to sleep."


	3. Chapter 2

"Can you keep going on the story about Ria?" Joey asked his grandmother. It was the night after he had gone to sleep, dreaming of the girl whose parents were murdered by Team Rocket.

"Oh, honey, it was too scary for you," his grandmother sighed. "I think I should just read _Pikachu's Adventure_ to you again."

Joey's little Rattata squeaked loudly and shook itself. Joey scratched its ear. "Rattata's right, Grandma. I know that old book by heart. Please? I wanna hear about Ria!"

The old woman gazed at Joey with a faraway look. "Oh, alright. Get under the covers, now…that's it…."

Ria left her house, telling herself that she would never return. She would not be a Trainer after all; just someone who wandered and wandered over all of Johto. If being a Trainer caused innocent girls' families to be brutally murdered, then that was not the career she wished for any longer.

She decided to start on her lifelong wandering at the caverns; the caverns that her parents had promised to take her to. Her parents were dead, so she would have to go alone.

Should she bring Poke Balls? No, she decided; if she had Pokémon, then she was legally considered a Trainer.

Her small hand hitched her bag of supplies higher up on her shoulder as she headed towards the caverns' entrance.

The bag containing her mother's severed head was still clutched tightly in her other hand.

When Ria got to the entrance of the caverns, she breathed in deeply before entering. It was very, very dark inside. She fumbled around in her bag of supplies, but alas: the objects she had thrown in at random had not, sadly, included a flashlight. Ria briefly considered turning around and going home, but concluded that a lifelong wanderer of Johto would have to be brave, and what better way to prove bravery than by making it through these caverns by herself?

Ria walked for what seemed like ages. Her eyes, used to the brighness of the beach and the sun sparkling off the water, had trouble adjusting to the darkness. She constantly stumbled over rocks, twice injuring her knees. When she felt them scrape against abrasive rock for the third time, she reached down to touch them and found that the merest touch stung her knees and left her fingers wet. She swiped her fingers with her tongue and caught the metallic tang of blood.

Suddenly, as if they had scented the girl's blood on the air, a swarm of wild Golbats descended upon Ria. Their gargantuan wings beat at her head, tangling her hair, while their unearthly, high-frequency cries filled her ears. Screaming in sheer terror, Ria tried to beat them away, but her thin, frail arms were no match for the Golbats. Images of her father's murder flashed in front of her eyes as the Golbats repeatedly dive-bombed her from above. One Golbat's wing caught Ria's back, leaving a long slash mark. Another sharp wing caught the bag containing her mother's head, and it tore, dumping its precious cargo onto the floor of the cave. Ria cried out before diving like a football player to catch the fallen head. She clutched it tightly to her chest, like a teddy bear, feeling the dried blood in her mother's hair leave residue on her fingers. She ducked to the floor, covering her head with her remaining hand and rocking back and forth, but even this did not deter the Golbats from their attack. Finally, Ria stood up, abandoning her pack , and ran as fast as she could away from the ferocious pack of Pokémon.

She did not know for how long she ran, stumbling and falling, taking random turns; she only stopped when her lungs gave out. She collapsed to the floor, trying to force air into her chest, trying to breathe. The attack had terrified her beyond any terror she had ever known. She could still hear the wings, the screeches. The wound on her back oozed blood, as did both of her knees and her elbows. She still clutched the head of her mother tightly. Holding it in both hands, she stared into her mother's dead face, frozen forever in a scream. Seeing such pain on her mother's face made Ria's eyes wet with tears again. Gently, she closed her mother's eyes and attempted to shape the face into a more peaceful expression. When she could bear to stare at it again, she tucked it back into the crook of her arm and began walking again through the caverns.


	4. Chapter 3

"What would you like to hear tonight, honey?" Joey's grandmother asked.

"Ria!" the Youngster responded immediately.

The old woman smiled. "Alright, Joey. But if you and Rattatta get too scared, then just tell me to stop, okay?"

Joey hugged Rattatta. "We're brave! I battle big Trainers all the time, and Rattatta is in the top percentage of all Rattatta! We don't get scared of anything!"

His grandmother patted their heads. "Sssh now…"

Ria continued through the caverns, her mother's head tucked firmly under her arm. Now and again, she heard the flutter of Zubat and Golbat wings. Whenever she heard them, she would throw herself to the floor of the cavern and curl into a tight ball, desperate to avoid the vicious Pokémon. Sometimes, her small hand would stroke the matted hair on her mother's head.

The small girl grew more and more fatigued as she walked. She felt like her entire body was crusted over with blood, and the bones in her legs seemed on the verge of snapping from overuse. Just as she was about to curl on the ground and sleep, she felt the cave shape change. While before, the ceiling had been relatively low, it now felt like she was walking in a huge chamber. Grasping at the ground, she found a rock, and threw it experimentally. The clattering sound echoed and echoed.

Ria swatted at her back for her pack before remembering that it was lost. She had left it back where the Golbats had swarmed her. She frantically squinted her eyes, desperate to survey the area.

All she could see was blackness.

She plunked to the ground, expecting her knees to hit the rough rock of the cave bottom. Instead, they hit soft, warm sand. Ria blinked in surprise, then swooshed her hands around the floor. Her fingers met nothing but sand and a few rocks. She listened for water, wondering if she was back near the beach, but heard nothing. Eerie nothing.

A huge sigh escaped her lips. She had been holding her breath while listening for the water, and to sigh felt so nice. Quickly, Ria decided that this sand would be a good place to sleep. Her small frame slumped to the ground, cradling her mother's head in her arms. In seconds, she was asleep.

"As you should be," Joey's grandmother reprimanded gently.

"No, no," mumbled Joey, but he was on the verge of sleep. "That wasn't long enough…"

His grandmother ran her withered hand through his hair. Joey's Rattatta was already asleep, squeaking gently in its slumber. "I can tell you more later. Sleep now, sweetheart."

The boy began to protest again, but his grandmother switched off the light and kissed his head. "Goodnight," she whispered.


End file.
